Legends of the Hidden Temple
Legends of the Hidden Temple was a physical challenge game show for Characters Hosted by Philippa Forrester, the show has been airing on Nick Jr. in 2010. The show was produced by Nick Jr. in association with Stone Stanley Productions and was taped at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The show centers around a temple that is "filled with lost treasures protected by mysterious Mayan temple guards". Six teams of two children (one boy and one girl) and families (one men and one women) compete to retrieve one of the historical artifacts in the Temple by performing physical stunts and answering questions based on history, mythology, and geography. After three elimination rounds, only one team remains, who then earns the right to go through the Temple to retrieve the artifact within three minutes and win a grand prize. Gameplay The set design of Legends was based on the Indiana Jones movies, and Marianne Arneberg of the Orlando Sentinel described Legends as "a combination of The Chair and The Vault". The set design has been described as Mayan. It included areas for different types of physical challenges: a broad but shallow pool of water (the moat), a set of steps (the Steps of Knowledge), and a large, two-and-a-half-floor vertical labyrinth (the Hidden Temple) at the back of the stage. At the labyrinth's gate was a talking Olmec head simply named Olmec (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). Olmec narrated the stories told in the steps of knowledge and temple game challenges (although in a few early episodes Forrester narrated the temple game challenges). Each episode centered around a particular legend regarding an artifact (real or fictional) from around the world that found its way to the Temple. Some artifacts included "Tommy's First Birthday," "The Bank Trick," "Waiter, There's a Baby in My Soup," and "Touchdown Tommy." In addition to providing an artifact, the legend also was important to other aspects of the show: the Steps of Knowledge used questions based on the historical legend, and the theme of the Temple Games was also loosely based on the legend. In each episode, six teams of two players begin a three round competition to determine which team earn the right to enter the Temple. Each team is identified with a color and an animal, indicated on their uniform shirts: Red Jaguars, Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, Purple Parrots, and Silver Snakes. Round 1: The Moat In the first round of the show, the six teams must cross a narrow swimming pool known as the "moat" in a prescribed manner. For example, the teams may have to swing out to a rope net in the middle of the moat, climb it, and then swim to the other side. All six teams attempt to get both members across according to the rules and push a button on a pedestal to ring a gong. The first four teams to cross the moat and ring their gongs advance to the second round. Round 2: The Steps of Knowledge The four remaining teams now stand on the topmost of the four levels of the Steps of Knowledge. Olmec begins this round by telling the remaining teams the episode's legend of the featured artifact, which becomes the theme for the remainder of the episode. The legend centers around an artifact which the winning team will search for in the final round. At the end of the legend, Olmec tells the teams the room in which the artifact may be found. After finishing, he asks the teams a series of questions to test their memories. Each multiple-choice question has three possible answers. A team that knows the answer buzzes in by stomping on the button on their step, causing the front of the step to illuminate (if Olmec is still in the middle of asking the question, he stops talking immediately). A team answering correctly moves down to the next level. If a team answers incorrectly or runs out of time (three seconds after being called upon), the other teams have a chance to answer. The first two teams to answer three questions correctly and thereby reach the bottom level advance to the next round. Round 3: The Temple Games The Temple Games feature the two remaining teams competing in three physical challenges to earn Pendants of Life that the winning team will use in the final round. Legends employs many types of Temple Games, with the day's legend serving as a theme for each. Temple Games are either untimed or last for a maximum of 60 seconds (or less if a team finishes earlier). After each challenge, the winning team (the team who completed the objective first or, failing that, the team who made the most progress) receives some portion of a protective Pendant of Life. The first two challenges, pitting single members from each team, are worth one half of a pendant, while the final challenge, involving both players on both teams, is worth a full pendant. If a Temple Game ends in a tie, both teams receive the pendant value of that game. At the end of the Temple Games, the team that has earned the greater number of pendants earns the right to enter the Temple. In the event that the two teams earn the same number of pendants after the three temple games, the teams play a tiebreaker to determine who advances to the Temple. The teams stand behind a tiebreaker pedestal, and Forrester (in later episodes, Olmec) asks a tiebreaker question to determine the winner. The first team to hit the button on top of their gong gets to answer the question. The team has five seconds to answer, and their first response must be accepted. A correct answer allows the team to go to the Temple. Originally, a team that buzzes in and gives an incorrect answer (or runs out of time) automatically loses (allowing the other team to advance to the Temple by default), but in later episodes, the other team must answer the question correctly to go to the Temple. Final Round: The Temple Run In the final round, the winning team takes the Pendants of Life the players have earned into the Temple (1, 1½, or 2), and attempt to retrieve the day's artifact and bring it back out of the temple within a three minute time limit. The team designates one member to enter the Temple first; that team member carries one of the team's pendants. The other team member holds the remaining pendant or half pendant (if applicable) and stands by to enter should the first team member be taken out of the Temple by a Temple Guard. The Temple consists of 12 or 13 rooms, each connected to adjacent rooms by doorways. The doors are either locked or unlocked; the pattern of locked and unlocked doors changes from episode to episode. Before the winning team should enter the Temple, Olmec tells them how they can make their way towards the artifact by entering all 12 or 13 of the rooms in order. The unlocked doors are closed at the start of the round, but they can be opened by completing a specific task or puzzle within each room. One room in the Temple contains the themed artifact (as stated by Olmec prior to the Steps of Knowledge round). Three other designated rooms hold Temple Guards (spotters in lavish Mayan sentinel costumes). When it came to a room called the "Dark Forest," there were occasions where one of the trees is possessed by the spirit of a Temple Guard. If the winning team has exactly 1½ pendants, the remaining half pendant is also placed in a room for the player with the half pendant to collect to make a full pendant. (In some episodes, the first player signals (usually by waving to the second player) where the half pendant is.) A player who encounters a Temple Guard is forced to give up a full pendant in order to go on. However, if the first player is caught without a pendant in his or her possession, he or she is taken out of the temple and the second player enters. (And tries his/her luck, according to Olmec) In either case, the Temple Guard who captures the player is out of play, and will not appear again in that room where the first player was captured, should the second player enter, for the rest of the round. When the second player enters, any doors that the first player opened remain open. If the second player is caught without a full pendant, the run ends immediately. The team has three minutes to retrieve the artifact and leave the temple with it. If either player grabs the artifact, all remaining Temple Guards vanish and all locked doors in the temple instantly open, allowing the player to escape unhindered. For entering the temple, the team automatically wins a prize. If a team member picks up the artifact, the team wins a more expensive prize as well. A team that retrieves the artifact and exits the temple with it before time runs out, earns the grand prize, in addition to the other two prizes. In series one, the artifact had to be handed to Forrester in order to win the third prize. In later series, the player only needed exit the temple with the artifact to win the third prize. On later episodes, during the Temple Run, the home viewers see a head-up display showing a map of the temple in the lower left corner of the screen, with a pink line showing the current contestant's path through the temple, with a blinking pink dot showing the room where the artifact is located. The viewers also see a graphic showing how many pendants the contestants have remaining. Sound Design for the action inside the Temple was created by Nickelodeon Senior Sound Designer Mark Schultz, who converted the voltages supplied by the infrared actuator "eyes" to triggers read by a MIDI-based sampler. Temple Layouts During the four series that the show was produced, the temple contained a wide variety of rooms that contestants had to conquer to win the grand prize. One of the most identifiable rooms of the Hidden Temple was the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, which was the only room to remain in the Hidden Temple throughout the entirety of the show's run. The Temple The temple gates were placed differently. In Series 1, the gates were in front of Olmec, but in the later series it was on the temple stairs, next to Olmec. Legends of the Hidden Temple: The Movie ''Legends of the Hidden Temple:The Movie ''is a TV-movie game show features Wayne Forester and Tasmin Heatley as (Mum and Dad) and Olmec. It ran on 2 seasons from 2013 - 2015. Music David Stanley/The Music Machine Inventors Scott Stone, David Stanley & Stephen Brown Episodes Legends of the Hidden Temple has 20 episodes in Series 1, 44 episodes in Series 2, 84 episodes in Series 3 and has 32 episodes in Series 4.http://www.nickjr.com/legendsofthehiddentemple Reference Link *The King's Storeroom - A fan site with an episode list, picture gallery, interactive game, and interviews with former contestants. Category:Flops Category:Nick Jr. shows Category:2010 premieres Category:Stunts and Dares Category:Action and Adventure